Janice R. Johnson stands at home in her dining room as she holds a plate she prepared of herb baked chicken with fresh green beans and a medley of fingerling potatoes. Johnson, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran, started Jus-So Catering seven years ago after she helped a friend with food at a party.

Marietta resident Janice R. Johnson and her team at Jus-So All Inclusive Events work to make your next dinner party or event “jus-so” perfect.

Jus-So is a full service catering and event planning company specializing in weddings, corporate functions, private dinners, fundraisers, open houses, cocktail receptions, bar mitzvahs, theme parties and more.

“We are a full scale catering, rental, and decor company for any event from two people to 500 people,” Johnson said. Her company is based out of Decatur and serves all of metro Atlanta.

“I’m always professional. I always do what I say I’m going to do. We’re always on time. My team bends over backwards. I think that stems from the type of person and my personality and how I get involved in making sure we exceed all expectations. We’re a small company and we trying to continue to make a good name for ourselves,” she said.

Jus-So has established a reliable reputation for itself. The company has a long list of impressive clients such as the Georgia State University Panthers, American Red Cross Peachtree Business Council and Alliance Theater Conversation Sessions at Cyclorama.

Johnson, a retired 20-year U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, began catering quite by accident. “I come from a family of major cooks. They can cook anything — delicious. But I didn’t necessarily grow up cooking,” she said.

It was not until her last 10 years of active duty with the Air Force that Johnson concentrated on cooking. “I don’t know if it was an overnight sensation or that I just started cooking. Everybody loved it,” she said.

With her retirement on the horizon, Johnson contemplated her next career. “I wanted to open up a tapas place,” she said.

Johnson enrolled in culinary school to learn the “back-end of the kitchen.” “I just wanted to learn the business. I fell in love with it. I already had a passion for food but it propelled me more in the direction of what I needed to do,” said Johnson who moved from Colorado Springs, Colo. to Atlanta in 2006 for work in Information Technology.

Friends asked her to make dishes for different events. “As I was doing things, in the back of mind I knew I couldn’t open a tapas place because I had too much on plate,” said Johnson giving as example her retirement, recent move, and adoption of an 8-month old son. “I put my dream on the backburner.”

Things changed for Johnson when a friend asked her to cater a party. “I hadn’t done anything on that scale before. But I did. People loved it,” she said.

By March 2008, she established Jus-So on paper. “Everything was history from there,” Johnson said.

“It just blows me away. It’s definitely developed into much more. It surprised me where we came from and where we are going,” said Johnson who took the name of her company from the phrase “Just So” used by a friend.

“I use the phrase now as we are jus-so good, jus-so delicious. We’re jus-so,” Johnson said.

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